It’s official. $30/month, ouch.
Time to stack Ultimate for a bit longer, prices still decent on Cdkeys / Loaded or even Amazon at the moment (UK at least)
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Ubisoft+ Classics is not much of a benefit for me, I like those older games but already own most of them anyway.
The $30 price tag has me thinking about downgrading to the $15 tier. I guess it would depend on what day 1 games are coming up that I want to play. How easy is it to switch tiers month to month? I’ve never even had cause to think about this before, in the past I just “set it and forget it” on the highest tier. 
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oh well. was a nice ride as long as it lasted
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The graphic looks pretty and inclusion of Ubisoft is nice and fortnite is whatever for me, but lord that price jump from the prior tier is crazy. Literally twice as much from the lower tier. Also the name changes are terrible. Core and Standard were better. “Premium” is a bit of a lie and “Essential” is just a longer word for core.
I don’t like how there’s still paid console multiplayer at all with the price increase essential has, but it looks like standard made out the best and PC made out the worst. GPU in my opinion they could serve to get rid of a benefit or two and lower the price to $25. My GPU luckily doesn’t run out until December 2026 and I’m definitely about to stack some more, but for the subscribers they want (those that shut their brain off and do monthly recurring) $30 is a BIG ask and I don’t think anyone wants ALL of those benefits. Stuff the taco with too much and no one will want to eat it. Also darn. Did Ubisoft really just have the big GP backlog drop we’ve been waiting for from ABK 
?
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It’s probably to put them directly against PS+ Essential and Premium.
I can understand that and I still hate it so much
Ubisoft games are always on offer anyway so paying $30 to rent them for one month is a bit too much (especially since Ubisoft+ exists as well and it has the latest releases too whilst Game Pass Ultimate is just getting their Classics collection).
This is basically an end of an era. It’s MS saying “Gamepass is no longer about day one games and the future of Xbox”.
They’re not stupid. They know what they’re doing, i.e. $30 is way above what most will pay for a sub service. The new ‘premium’ Game Pass without day one releases is where they expect people to fall into. I think it’s pretty clear they enjoyed making money by releasing games on PlayStation and now want Xbox players to pay the full price as well (or pay an exorbitant Ultimate tier $30 a month).
It is what it is. I’m ambivalent on the topic, i.e. Xbox was at its peak long before Game Pass (2010 or so) so this doesn’t really hit me hard.
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Anyway, yeah. My two cents is that Microsoft should drop paid online period (so no subscription is required for it on console just like on PC), and lower the cost of Ultimate to $25 (that’d be a reasonable price increase and jump from the next lowest tier).
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This is horrible, i just saw the amount for ultimate in my country.
Its 100 reais here, my god.
Yelp, it was good while it lasted cause the number of users in gamepass is gonna decrease by a landslide at least by the end of next week.
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These tiers are too few and offer too many different things in each tier. Feels like we’re paying too much for a lot of things we’d never end up using.
Why not separate cloud gaming for instance.
Gamepass ultimate should come with no added services like EA play as base, they should only be offered as a combo. I feel they don’t really add much and simply increase the cost.
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I’ve been a GamePass subscriber since day one (pun intended), but I just canceled my sub. As silly as it may sound, these price hikes feel offensive to me.
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Waiting for that permenant price hike to $80 for AAA games news any day now.
Got me 6 months cheaper off Loaded. Going to wait and see if they go back on this, I wouldn’t be surprised - but also wouldn’t be surprised if they keep at it, if the discussions about Xbox gaming’s profit requirements are accurate. If it’s the same when that 6 months is up, no thanks. A 50% increase is huge.
Maybe this is asking too much but the new tier would make more sense if it included the premium versions of games . If it gave subscribers the early access and premium versions , then it wouldn’t look as bad
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That’s very true. I’m still happy with my XSX and I’ll wait to see what the next generation has to offer before deciding on my next step.
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I think this is the name of the game from now on, unfortunately, and not even only from Microsoft, but console gaming in general. The audience isn’t getting larger anymore. It’s now about getting more money from the people who are already locked in. Look at the console price increases after five years on the market - we are in uncharted territory.
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R$120 in Brazil is too much…
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For sure, but this seems to be the opposite of what they’ve been claiming, giving us “more options”.
For example, if they had a GPU sub that is exactly the same as the current sub in terms of content and price, and then they added this one called Game Pass Hardcore with the Ubi titles and Fortnite content for $30… Most people would stick with the GPU sub. Maybe the Fortnite players would go for the GPH one. That’s about it.
So all this talk about giving us more options is just marketing speak for jacking up prices.
I would actually be far more interested in GPU at $30 if it gave us more features. I would love an online PVR so I don’t need to record to my Xbox all the time (with measly 1 minute clips). I’d love discounts on hardware and design lab controllers. Bonuses akin to Patreon bonuses would be something I would value, like a T-shirt or hat for every 6 months of subscription that I can choose from the store. Make it something that rewards “superfans”.
Another thing that is absolutely silly but still worth something to a lot of people: a certificate beside their Xbox Live handle. Like Twitter’s checkmark. It’s shallow but people like that stuff.
While, technically speaking, you’re going to only pay $22 a month if you take advantage of doing the MS Rewards challenges… those turn into a part-time job. Spending 10 minutes a day doing those adds up to 5 hours a month. You might as well work 5 hours flipping burgers at $8 an hour to make $40 to pay for it all.
Anyways, having paid $22 CAN a month and now $40 CAN a month, it’s essentially DOUBLED. I don’t play enough Fortnite to take advantage of the generous season pass + VBucks offer, which I would have been all over 7 years ago. Would rather have that for Rocket League and I don’t even play that.
So now I can pay $20 a month and get fewer games. In the name of “choice”.
So I think once my GPU runs out at the end of December I am going to try to not get Game Pass for the first half of 2026 and catch up on some of my purchased backlog.
I figure paying $270 for Game Pass Ultimate each year was manageable. $480 is too much of an increase. So maybe I will still spend $270 in 2026 meaning that I can subscribe for 6 months. Perhaps the last half of the year.
Also, I’ve been playing way too many games with Game Pass. I’ve stopped watching movies or TV shows. I need to finish my game stat so maybe this is a massive blessing in disguise lol
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Yeah, its a shitshow here, this is going to backfire on microsoft massively in latin america if they do not decrease the price in a reasonable amount, cause now its considered the most expansive subscription service here in the country by a good margin.
Also last i checked it said 100 reais not 120 on the official article
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